


some unexpected bonding time

by elvesarebad



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Bonding, Control Issues, Fluff, Gen, Present Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-12
Updated: 2013-06-12
Packaged: 2017-12-14 18:24:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/839952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elvesarebad/pseuds/elvesarebad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>erica comes over looking for scott but finds melissa instead</p>
            </blockquote>





	some unexpected bonding time

**Author's Note:**

> a/n: originally posted on tumblr and for someothermonstra who gave me the prompt erica & melissa cute fluffy bonding times; written sometime during/after s2 so some spoilers for that season; set somewhere between 2x10 and 2x11.

derek tells erica, boyd, and isaac to go look for scott because for some reason he can't do it himself. he's been acting kinda jumpy nowadays, erica thinks, like he's expecting something to happen and whatever it is just keeps not happening. they all know he's keeping something from them - boyd complains about it, although not too loudly, and isaac pretends it's not happening, just smirks and rolls his eyes like boyd takes everything way too seriously, and erica, well, she's just enjoying the ride while she can. good things don't come around very often in her life and she likes to appreciate them as much as she can while she can.

she treats this search for scott like the competition it is, smirking at the others and giving them a little wave. while boyd heads over to the school in case scott's getting in some last minute lacrosse practice and isaac heads over to the animal clinic, erica heads straight for scott's house. she knows his address because when they were twelve she had been paired with him for a school project and her dad had impressed upon her the need for a phone number and an address where she could be reached (so that he could call ahead and warn so-and-so's parents about her epilepsy, she knew). so she had jotted down scott's number and address in her pristine black notebook, careful with her handwriting because her dad didn't like it when she scrawled things.

erica knows exactly where she's heading and takes her own damn time doing it, because obviously she's going to win. it's only when she knocks and scott's mom answers the door that she realises she didn't anticipate this scenario.

"erica?" melissa sounds pleasantly surprised but there's also an undercurrent of confusion to her voice, like she doesn't know why erica is here. has scott told his mom about him? about them? damn, if he has, this is going to be awkward.

"are you looking for scott?" melissa asks when erica says nothing. and--and there's something about the way melissa says scott's name, about the way her expression changes - it's small and she wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't been paying attention but it's like melissa scared of her, and of scott. not overtly but it's certainly different from how she had been with erica during her hospital visits.

when erica takes a step forward, melissa doesn't exactly close the door but she certainly hides herself behind it. and there's a flash of actual fear in her eyes now, not that almost-fear from before. it makes erica step back and away, makes her feel like before the bite, like the epileptic social pariah whose gaze no one met because it would mean acknowledging her as an actual person rather than someone to laugh at and make fun of. she'd thought that feeling was behind her, now that she had the bite, that she had control, over her body and over how people perceived her. but melissa knows what she is and it scares her. like erica is no longer a person, but a monster. as though erica would hurt her when melissa is one of only a few people who was ever kind to her.

"you know, don't you." it's not a question. she feels her shoulders slump and lets them even though, as her mother would say, posture is important.

"that you're a...werewolf?" melissa says the word like it's still unbelievable. still something she has to reminds herself of every morning when she wakes up. werewolves exist. who knew?

"yeah," erica says. "did he tell you?"

melissa shakes her head. "no, i...i guessed that one. your type of epilepsy doesn't get miraculously cured overnight. at least not without a little help from the supernatural." she hesitates - erica holds her breath, just stands there, waiting - and then melissa is opening the door and stepping aside to let erica into the house.

"thanks," erica says as she walks past melissa, who closes the door behind her. she follows melissa into the kitchen where she watches melissa grab the pot of coffee and then stop and turn around to face her, hand still wrapped around the pot's handle.

"coffee?"

erica nods even though she's never really been a coffee person. it gives melissa something to do, at least. and having something to do with her hands seems to help melissa relax a little bit.

once melissa's finished making the coffee they sit on the sofa in the living room, keeping some space between them. erica holds the coffee cup carefully by the handle and takes a sip. it's...better than her mother's, or the coffee at the hospital. she takes another sip.

"do you--" melissa closes her mouth and stares off into the distance, her brow furrowed slightly. "are you--hmph." she sounds annoyed with herself. erica tries not to smile but it's too difficult not to. instead she stares down at the coffee and runs her finger along the rim of the cup.

"how does it feel?" melissa says eventually.

"being a werewolf?" erica replies, trying to keep the amusement from her voice because this is serious business. "it's...not what i expected."

melissa turns to look at her, her coffee cup sitting forgotten on the arm of the sofa. "what do you mean?"

"like i wanted to not be--i wanted--i thought it would make things better. and," she gazes down at her coffee cup, like it has all the answers. "some things it did and others it...didn't."

"like what?"

erica glances over at her. "do you really want to know?"

melissa does hesitate, but to her credit not for long. she nods.

"during the full moon, it's the worst but sometimes when you get angry it's not just anger but rage, like you can and will kill everything and nothing has the power to stop you. and you have no real control over what you're doing." and erica remembers her first and only full moon, when she couldn't stop herself from turning completely, liked she could before. And maybe she knew it in some way before the full moon, but now it’s clear that she’s simply exchanged one terrible thing for another, that control over her own body and mind will always be something she’ll never quite master. she wraps her hands around the coffee cup, gripping them tightly to keep them from shaking.

“but it’s not all bad?” melissa asks, leaning forward. and there’s something almost eager in her voice and in her face, like she’s hoping the good will outweigh the bad.

it does, most of time. erica grins when she remembers strutting into the cafeteria and taking that apple from the slack hands of a boy who’d probably never looked twice at her, except to laugh and snicker about her with his friends. how confident she felt in leopard print heels she’d bought at the beginning of summer and never worn outside the safety of her bedroom, in the short black mini-skirt she’d found at the bottom of the pile of clothes her mother always confiscates, her lips red and pulled wide in a smirk. the admiration she’d seen on all of their faces, even on lydia martin’s, however grudgingly it was, had filled her with glee. going to lacrosse games with boyd, sitting on bleachers, underneath those fierce lights, being swept up in boyd’s glee and the crowd’s mixed and rising emotions. and going clubs with isaac, dancing together until the line between her body and his was blurred, both laughing in the faces of people who thought they could touch them without their permission.

“no,” erica says slowly. “it’s not all bad. it’s harder to hurt us,” she adds, trying to reassure melissa since grinning and agreeing with her probably wouldn’t be enough.

“but there are people out there who want to hurt you,” melissa says quietly, staring down at her hands resting on her lap. she links her fingers. “people who don’t think you should be allowed to live.”

erica doesn’t say anything for a long time. eventually she manages to say, her voice very very small, “do you agree with them?” she tries not to let her claws come out, her eyes burn gold, because melissa deserves the benefit of the doubt. for all her small kindnesses, for how she treated erica, teasing her and joking with her, making her feel normal and safe. and maybe derek wouldn’t agree but, well, fuck him. melissa deserves a chance.

melissa makes a noise that would have made erica jump if she wasn’t keeping herself so tightly controllable and then she turns to smile at erica like she’s surprised by what she’s thinking and kind of okay with it. “no, i don’t think i do.”

erica can’t help the relieved grin that escapes her and melissa’s smile widens, the corners of her eyes wrinkling. “i don’t think i’ll ever be okay with someone hurting my son, no matter what he is or who he becomes.” and the way melissa’s eyes get hard and cold for a second sends a shiver down erica’s spine. erica can’t summon up one ounce of sympathy for the person who gets on melissa’s bad side.

“do you want me to make you another cup of coffee?” melissa asks suddenly, gesturing at the cup in erica’s hands. erica’s surprised to find it’s cold when she takes a sip, the taste of it making her screw up her face. melissa laughs, like she used to at the hospital, and erica hands her the cup.

“actually, do you have any hot chocolate? i’m not really a coffee girl.” erica wrinkles her nose and melissa laughs again, softly, and the sound makes erica want to curl up on the sofa and watch bad tv for the rest of the day.

“okay, coming right up.” melissa heads out of the room with both cups.

erica pushes her heels off and curls her legs up under her, moving around as she tries to find the most comfortable position. the skirt she’s wearing isn’t exactly helping things but eventually she manages to find a position that doesn’t feel too constricting. she takes a look around herself, taking in the piles of dvds around the small tv because there’s no cabinet to put them in. she goes and sits next to one of the piles and begins to look through them, smiling at some of the dvds, shaking her head at others.

“here you go,” melissa says from behind her. erica turns to see her place a steaming cup of hot chocolate on the coffee table behind her. the smell of it tempts her away from her perusal of the dvds. the happy sigh she gives as she wraps her hands around the cup and takes a sip has melissa laughing again, soft and amused.

“you look like you’re in heaven.”

erica nods happily. being a werewolf doesn’t just enhance her sight or smell. everything tastes better somehow, especially the things she loved before. it’s one of the good things, she thinks.

“seen anything you liked?” melissa’s voice breaks erica out of her silent ode to hot chocolate. when she opens her eyes, she finds melissa pointing at the dvds erica had been looking through.

“um, if you don’t mind…” erica holds up _bring it on_ and waits for melissa to laugh. and she does but it’s not condescending like her own mother’s would be – “since you can’t be a cheerleader,” she would say, “why hurt yourself by watching a movie about them?” – instead melissa’s laugh is happy, like she couldn’t have made a better choice if she tried.

and it’s only when melissa wakes her up as she heads to work that she remembers that she did come here for reasons other than hanging out with melissa and being normal. she tries to say something but it comes out as a yawn.

“shh, go back to sleep,” melissa murmurs as she lays a blanket over erica.

erica apparently doesn’t need to be told anything else. within seconds, she’s fast asleep.


End file.
